Andy Slavitt Doesn’t Know Anything About Medicaid, Is A Liar, Or Both

[Geee]

The Federalist

The debate on health care has seen numerous examples of hyperbolic rhetoric in recent months. But one series of allegations made earlier this month takes the cake, both for its factual ignorance and logical incoherence. That these demonstrably false allegations were made by a former senior official in the Obama administration makes them that much more disconcerting.
While many Americans were enjoying a long Independence Day weekend, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Andy Slavitt took to Twitter to make the bold claim that Republicans were changing their health-care bill “not just to gut Medicaid, but to allow states to eliminate it.”

Before delving into his bill of particulars, it’s worth rebutting the overall claim that Republicans would allow states to “eliminate” Medicaid. That’s false—and provably so. Under our Constitution, the federal government cannot require states to participate in a program to begin with. By definition, the Republican health-care bill cannot “allow states to eliminate” Medicaid—states already have that right, and always will. That’s the point of the Tenth Amendment, and of federalism. Perhaps Slavitt needs to read the Constitution, and if he doesn’t have a copy, I will gladly lend him mine.